AP Literature Sweats It Out

As part of their study of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Mrs. Brown's AP Literature students researched and performed the Tarentella, a dance that features in the 19th Century play.

Making Maps

Ninth grade World History students work on their cartography skills in Dr. Kennon's class. 

L-R: Yisrael Wiener, Asher Kirshtein, Ethan Morris, Ezra Cooper, Simcha Osdoba, and William Goldmeier

American Lit Students Tell It Slant

As part of American Literature class, the 9th and 10th grade students wrote poems in the style of Emily Dickinson. Here are a few to enjoy:

If love is Death, then death I want--
To see Him over there
I’ll look to death to make me free--
But He will never care

If love is Death, then death I’ve had--
And He rejected me
And from my grave within I rise--
Inside­ I always bleed

If love is Death, then let me die--
For love is all I need
But should he turn his heart away
Love be the death of me
--by Shoshana Silbermann 


A shot rang loud and clear. 
A scream rose from on high.
Please help­--please help--the voice called out,
I do not wish to die.

The Wind came rushing past,
Like waves upon the shore,
To comfort him­ put him to ease
So he would fear no more.

The Breeze made him serene--
He lay barely awake.
She held him close­ she kept him safe--
A mother’s warm embrace.

The end of life draws near,
The Wind patiently waits.
A gentle Gust­-- his eyes now close--
A smile upon his face.
--By Chaya Klein


The Wind threw me onto the ground--
When I was growing old--
I fell afar, away from Home--
Into a brand new World

 The Tree now stood above my head--
And would not let me be--
With its unkind and joyous laugh--
As one boy raked the Leaves
--by Yisrael Wiener

Diorama-rama!

Rena Osdoba created this fantastic diorama of chapter 10 of S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders.

This diorama depicts the death of Dally Winston, who gives into despair after learning of the death of his friend, Johnny Cake. It's a tragic end to a wasted life, as you can see in Rena's diorama. 

Don't try this at home, kids! (The crime, that is, not the making of dioramas.) 

AP Language Students Explore Local History

(You can read about the Memphis Massacre at this website by Harper's Weekly.)

This year is the 150th anniversary of the Memphis Massacre, part of our city's troubled past during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. Facing History and Ourselves held a local workshop on the event, which was attended by our Humanities teachers Ashley Brown and Rhonda Martin. Mrs. Brown then passed the experience on to her AP Language and Composition students. 

The students read original testimony from the little-known event, then explored how society's ideas about important issues are altered when they are unaware of events in their own history. The students walked around the room to read original accounts of the massacre, then silently added their own comments. You can see some of their thoughts in the images below. 

The students then learned about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and read an essay by noted African-American author W.E.B. DuBois. Afterwards, the students composed their own thoughtful essays with the prompt, "The Importance of Getting History Right." Below is Junior Tani Finkelstein's response, which so impressed our school's Facing History and Ourselves representative that she asked permission to send it on to the organization's senior leaders. 

The Importance of Getting History Right by Tani Finkelstein (Class of 2017)

     History, by its very nature, is biased. It is a record of events from the past through the lens of certain people, and not others. No one is omniscient, all knowing, and unbiased except for God, and as such, any account of the past is going to biased and limited in certain ways. Some accounts, however, are significantly more biased and far from the truth than others. Regardless, all of these accounts influence and mold how we view the past. Since, of course, we were not there, we can only accept what we read and hear. In many instances, our understanding of history can effect how we think of people and how we will act in the future.

   Take, for example, the well known historic work of Herodotus: Histories. We rely on it heavily as a source for much of Greek and Persian history, but in reality, much of it is completely made up and biased against Greek enemies. Yet, due to a lack of any other historical sources from that time, we use Herodotus' biased and often inaccurate account to frame our understanding of history. As a result, our understanding of much of that history is likely quite inaccurate. This illustrates perfectly how history can make us believe things which simply are not true, but yet, we cannot question it, because we were not there. However, some misrepresentations of history have much more wide and negative ramifications than others. It is not necessarily negative that we falsely believe that a Persian queen was a nasty, wicked woman who ate children, but in the accounts of more recent history, something like that can have massive repercussions. When a historian denies the Holocaust or warps the history of cruelty to blacks, for example, that has a big effect; it perpetuates baseless hatred and cultivates naively cruel perspectives and actions.

     As they say, "those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it." That phrase could not be more true. If we have a prideful and naive view of atrocious and terrible events of history, we are truly likely to repeat it. People think that the Holocaust and black slavery can never happen again, but they can, albeit in modern forms. In other words, the same hatred may manifest itself in more contemporary, seemingly more moral fashions, but as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, "there is no new under the sun." It is our obligation and responsibility to get history right, learn from it, and ensure that there is new under the sun, that we can reach new horizons of morality and justice.

    The work of an organization like Facing History and Ourselves is a perfect model for how history can be used so constructively. As obvious by the name, what they do is "face" and confront the blunt history of injustices committed in the world, and they facilitate constructive conversation between diverse segments of people on how to learn from that history, and not make the same mistakes in future generations. When we cover up that history in an effort to make ourselves look better, or to prevent regret and shame, we are doing a major disservice to society, depriving peoples' psyches from invaluable messages.

    History is an amazing tool, when used properly. It is our obligation to ensure its accurate portrayal and constructive use towards creating a better, more just future.

Dr. Kennon's Students Visit the Library

Dr. Kennon's 9th Grade World History class made a trip to the school library where they were excited to find books to help them on their current research project.

Students Give Presidential Speeches in U.S. Government

Who is it going to be? Clinton? Trump? Sanders? Cruz?

How about Winestone or Serman?

Students in Mr. Brame's U.S. Government class got a glimpse of what it means to stump for the presidency when they wrote and delivered their own campaign speeches. 

Students Plan a World Trip

Dr. Kennon's 7th Grade World History class presented their trip projects in class today. Students planned a four day trip to their destination complete with maps and brochures.

Illuminated Manuscripts

Dr. Kennon's 9th Grade World History class created illuminated manuscripts for their unit on the Middle Ages. Each student took on the persona of a medieval villager and wrote the chronicle of their life.

The students at the MHAFYOS/GMSG had a special day of learning on the final day before the Winter break. As a class, they compared the experience of Holocaust victims to Japanese-Americans who were put into internment camps during World War II. Below is their poem.

Hey! Do you know about the USA?

For throwback Thursday, let's go back to the time a few weeks ago when Mr. Brame's government class had a sing-along to learn about the US Constitution. 

The Schoolhouse Rock version of the song is below, but beware: it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the week. 

Writing Ruba'i in World Literature

Students in Mr. Brame's world literature class studied the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam. Khayyam, a Persian poet, wrote this collection in the twelfth century, and utilized the traditional Persian form of the ruba'i. This poetic form consists of a four-line stanza that creates a single complete thought. These poems are written in iambic pentameter and have the rhyme scheme of a, a, b, a.

Also, students listened to a lot of Persian pop music while completing their assignments.  

Students Dress Up Like Characters From "The Canterbury Tales"

From left: The Nun, The Prioress, The Wife of Bath, Bath Itself

In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle.